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The American soprano, Darby Schmidt, has never anticipated that she would pursue a career in music, in fact she planned to become a dentist. However, after 6 years of vocal lessons and participating in her local opera company’s productions, she completely changed her outlook on life. As a teenager, she soared to national prominence by winning a prize in the Schmidt Vocal Arts Competition (no relation) and being chosen as one of only 10 participants nationwide for the Metropolitan Opera Guild's High School Opera Singers Intensive. She currently studies for her Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance at Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester (since 2020; expected graduation: 2024). At Eastman, she is a member of the Eastman Chorale (Director: William Weinert) and Eastman Repertory Singers, and participated as a soloist in Eastman School of Music: Bach Cantata Series (BWV 101, March 2021; BWV 7, February 2022). In November 2022, she performed Lyla Lear in Anthony Davis's Lear on the Second Floor in Kilbourn Hall in a production of Eastman Opera Theatre.
In January 2020, Darby Schmidt performed Maria in Opera Modesto's Mansfield Park by Johnathan Dove. In summer 2022, she attended the AIMS summer program in Graz, Austria, arguably the leading training program in Europe for pre-professional opera singers. In the last week of the program she was asked to sing the famous Viennese operetta aria "Vilja" from Lehar's Merry Widow in the orchstra concert. In January 2023, she was back in Opera Modesto to create the title role in the world premiere opera, Annabel (by Deborah Kavasch), part of Opera Modesto's Edgar Allan Poe double-bill of one act operas and destination weekend/PoeCon. |
